In the recent times, some have shown interest in uniting, coming together of the Buddhist and the Hindus. ‘Truth’ has got to be stated in different terms, different codes of conduct need to be laid down for beings standing on different rungs of the evolutionairy ladder. No great Teacher ‘founded’ any religion. The term ‘religion’ is no good a translation of ‘Dharma’. It is the followers, who crystallized the sublime teachings into concepts, precepts and doctrines. Some went further to create dogmas and tried to impose them on others. Later, the priestcraft, as distinct from the true sannyasis, the true Bhikkhus, exploited the ignorant.

The path that one can follow depends to a large extent on the point, where one stands. For, the goal, if there be a goal, is a far distant horizon, unknown and unknowable to a mind full of limitations and self-created contradictions.

From page 17:

” For the first time in the history of the world, Buddha proclaimed a salvation, which each man could gain for himself and by himself in this world during this life, without the least help from personal God or Gods. He strongly inculcated the doctrine of self-reliance, of purity, of courtesy, of enlightenment of peace and of universal love. He strongly urged the necessity of knowledge, for without the wisdom the psychic insight could not be got in this life. Desire not to be born re-born again and again; nor for a cessation of existence in this one life; desire not for the enjoyment of sensuality. Lead a life of purity, seek only the fruits of the Fourfold Path of Holiness, which lead to Nirvana. These were the teachings of the Buddha. “

The too prevalent ignorance among adult Sinhalese Buddhists of the ethical code of their religion leads me to issue this little compilation. Similar moral precepts exist by hundreds in the Buddhist scriptures; from which also all the quotations in this little work are derived. Orientalists and other impartial persons admit that no religion in the world contains a more sublime system of moral values than Buddhism. But if we wish this to become known to Buddhist children, we, adult Buddhists, must take the task upon ourselves.

From page 12:

PARENTS, TEACHERS AND CHILDREN

” Parents should:

Restrain their children from vice.

Train them in virtue.

Have them taught Arts and Sciences.

Provide them with suitable wives and husbands (at least valid for the ancient times).

On August 29, 1882, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832 – 1907), President-Founder of the Theosophical Society, was in Galle, Ceylon, on a lecturing tour to raise funds for the opening of the schools for Buddhist children. One of the people who came forward to contribute was a man, whose arm and leg had been paralyzed for eight years. Olcott, who had read the literature on animal magnetism, or mesmerism as it was also termed, and magnetic healing in his youth, says he was moved to try some healing passes with his hands over the man’s arm, telling him that he hoped he might feel better.

Later that evening the gentleman returned to thank the Colonel, saying indeed his condition had improved. This encouraged Olcott to treat the arm again. There was a marked improvement when he returned the next morning, and, after two more days of treatment, he could move his arm and open and close his hand. Olcott also tried working on the man’s leg, which responded well enough to allow his to walk freely and even run. To show his thanks, the now-healed man brought a friend, who was also paralyzed. When he was cured, others came in increasing numbers, to the point, the Colonel recalled, ‘within a week or so my house was besieged by sick persons from dawn until late night, all clamoring for the laying on of my hands’.

Within the space of a year, he would treat some 8.000 people, until, at the verge of his own health breaking down, he was ordered by his teacher to stop. This little-known episode in the work undertaken by Olcott offers and instructive glimpse into the revival of alternative healing that was occuring at the time and which has now entered the mainstream.

Olcott tells of his association with his co-founder, Madame H.P. Blavatsky, and their work together for the cause of Theosophy. He writes of their contacts with the Mahatmas, of travels in many lands, and of the growth of The Theosophical Society from its small beginnings in New York in 1875 to an expanding international movement spread through many parts of the world. To keep intact the true flavour of the early years of the Theosophical Society, Col. Olcott’s words are presented just as he wrote them .

His comments include references to occasional differences of opinion with his close and trusted colleague, H.P. Blavatsky. These very human differences perhaps will cause the reader to react with a smile of relief, knowing that great leaders such as these were also subject to human frailty and to times of disagreement. Old Diary Leaves gives a personal evaluation only, and is not intended to represent an official history of The Theosophical Society.
Henry Steel Olcott was born on 2 August 1832 in Orange, New Jersey. In his early life he became distinguished in the field of agriculture, and then later for his services to the US Government during the Civil War. In 1874, when investigating spiritualistic phenomena for some New York newspapers, he met H.P.Blavatsky and together they became the principal founders of The Theosophical Society. He devoted the rest of his life to work for the Society and related causes. He died on 17 February, 1907 at Adyar, Madras ( now Chennai) , India.

Olcott tells of his association with his co-founder, Madame H.P. Blavatsky, and their work together for the cause of Theosophy. He writes of their contacts with the Mahatmas, of travels in many lands, and of the growth of The Theosophical Society from its small beginnings in New York in 1875 to an expanding international movement spread through many parts of the world. To keep intact the true flavour of the early years of the Theosophical Society, Col. Olcott’s words are presented just as he wrote them .

His comments include references to occasional differences of opinion with his close and trusted colleague, H.P. Blavatsky. These very human differences perhaps will cause the reader to react with a smile of relief, knowing that great leaders such as these were also subject to human frailty and to times of disagreement. Old Diary Leaves gives a personal evaluation only, and is not intended to represent an official history of The Theosophical Society.
Henry Steel Olcott was born on 2 August 1832 in Orange, New Jersey. In his early life he became distinguished in the field of agriculture, and then later for his services to the US Government during the Civil War. In 1874, when investigating spiritualistic phenomena for some New York newspapers, he met H.P.Blavatsky and together they became the principal founders of The Theosophical Society. He devoted the rest of his life to work for the Society and related causes. He died on 17 February, 1907 at Adyar, Madras ( now Chennai) , India.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–91) was perhaps the greatest Occultist of the West in recent times, and an outstanding messenger who presented the Ancient Wisdom for the modern age. With little fanfare she brought to bear powerful influences on human affairs, as is exemplified in her life and works. She did not bring anything new to mankind; in fact she succeeded in the great task of communicating wisdom that is as ancient as mankind.

Annie Besant (1847–1933), second President of The Theosophical Society from 1907 to 1933, was described as a ‘Diamond Soul’, for she had many brilliant facets to her character. She was an outstanding orator of her time, a champion of human freedom, educationist, philanthropist, and author with more than three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit.

Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), President-Founder of the Theosophical Society was born on 2 August 1832 at Orange, New Jersey. Olcott came from an old English Puritan family that had been settled for many generations in the United States.

C. Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953), the fourth President of the Theosophical Society, was educated at Cambridge University, England, and was an exceptional linguist, who lectured fluently in many European languages. His wide range of interests and writings included religion, philosophy, literature, art, science and occult chemistry. He made valuable sketches and notes during the clairvoyant investigations of Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater into the structure of matter.

Charles Webster Leadbeater (1847–1934) was a highly developed clairvoyant who unfolded and perfected his psychic faculties under the guidance of his Adept-Teacher. He commenced clairvoyant investigations in 1893, on occasion collaborating with Annie Besant, the second President of The Theosophical Society, and wrote over thirty books on the spiritual life and the psychic nature of man.

N. Sri Ram (1889–1973), fifth President of The Theosophical Society from 1953 to 1973, dedicated himself to Theosophical work as a young assistant of Dr Besant. He was closely associated with her social, political and educational and other activities, and helped her in editing New India, a daily newspaper that was influential in the struggle for India’s freedom.

The Chapters of this Volume, originally published in The Theosophist from January 1905 to December 1906, complete the story of The Society as written by the President-Founder. No revision of the Leaves as they originally appeared has been attempted. The Editor’s work is confined to a few explanatory notes, and the correction of typographical and a few other obvious errors.

From Chapter XXI – ‘Magic: Black and White’ (p. 316):

” The phenomena of H.P.B. and other Adepts in occult science prove superabundantly that when there is present the dominating will, the ceremonials may be dispensed with. When it is a question of a less developed thaumaturge, the consecrated sword, the triangular altar, the prepared lamb-skin, the circle of burning lamps, the lighted incense sticks, the flowers, the solemn invocations would be useless. In the Abra-Melim book the veil is partially raised so as to give the reader a quite sufficient peep into the penetralia of Black Magic. It dates from 1458 A.D. and it purports to have been given by Abraham, the author, to his son Lamech, and to compromise the Magic taught by God to Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, and other Patriarchs and Prophets. “

The year 1893 now opens up before us, and its events will be found to be very important. As previously shown, the rumblings of the coming tempest about Mr. William Quan Judge (1851 – 1896) were beginning to be heard. Towards the end of the year the arrival of Mr. Walter G. Old of the London staff, with the budget of notes and memoranda, which he had taken, enabled me by comparing documents to see the depth and fullness of treachery, which Mr. Judge had long been planning. I find from my Diary of 1893 that the greater part of the first day was spent by Messrs, Keightley, Old and myself in summarising the evidence in the case; and needless to say, all our hearts were filled with sorrow, for this was almost if not the very first case of downright perfidy in our Society’s history.

“ It was almost as though they were wading through a stream of human beings. On every side, to great distances, stretched the swarthy multitude; the river banks were crowded with bathers; streams of people moved hither and thither to visit the camps of notabilities – rajahs and maharajahs, zemindars and talukdars, declaiming teachers of various sects, hatha yogis by the score, making a public show of their austere practices, some smeared with ashes and streaked with saffron caste-marks, some with their long dishevelled locks, supplemented with chignons or vegetable fibre built up into high dusty cones, like exaggerated rats’nests, on top of their heads, some lying on beds of spikes, some sitting in the different ‘asans’ prescribed by Patanjali, some decorating their bodies after their baths, some with eyes closed as if in meditation, etc. – but with very few exceptions, each having spread on the ground before him a cloth on which the pious pilgrims could cast their alms of copper coin: pious humbugs in short. “

It is six years since the Third Series of Old Diary Leaves appeared in book form. and it is nine years since the contents of the present Volume were published in the pages of The Theosophist. The author, Henry Steel Olcott, passed over in 1907, and as all who knew him well are aware, the publication of the whole of this ‘true history of the Theosophical Society’ was a matter that lay near his heart. There still remains sufficient material to fill one, if not two, additional Volumes, and it is hoped this will appear in due course, for the longer the lapse of time that separates the present membership of the Theosophical Society from its early history, the more important it is that the facts should be placed on record.

For the earlier part of the story, relating to America and India, there was no living authority so well able to bare witness to the facts as the late Co-Founder of the Society. In this present Volume, however, we traverse a period when, owing to to the world-wide spread of the organisation, the touch of the President with the whole of the Society was not so close, and maybe there are those well qualified to write of the development of different Sections, who could effictively supplement the present history so far as their own country is concerned. But such sectional or national histories remain to be written, and in the meantime the record of Colonel Olcott is here to read – and inwardly digest.

From Chapter XXIII – ‘From Stockholm to Kyoto (p. 407):

” The ladies of our local Branch had organised a charming scheme of moral and religious instruction for children, to which they gave the name ‘The Children’s Hour’. A special exhibition of it was given for my information, and it delighted me very much. The motive was to impress upon the youthful minds the idea of the fundamental resemblance between the world religions and the advisability of learning to be kind and tolerant to all men, of whatsoever race or creed. A senior girl represented Theosophia, and other the Founders of religions – Krishna, Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, etc. Each of these held a staff carrying a symbolical pennant. A simple, yet excellent dialogue was framed, in which Theosophia put questions to each of the flag-holders, to give him or her the chance to quote from the Scriptures of the Founder of that religion; verses, which embodied the Theosophical spirit. The children wore pretty dresses, there was some little marching and other exercises, and all seemed to enjoy the occasion. “

The first Volume of these historical sketches covered the period from the meeting of Madame Blavatsky (1831 – 1891) and myself, Henry Steel Olcott, in 1874, to our departure from New York for Bombay in December, 1878. The second Volume tells of our adventures in India and Ceylon, the formation of Branches, the giving of lectures, healings of the sick by hundreds, occult phenomena produced by H.P.B. etc., and brings us down to the Autumn of 1883: at this time we take up the thread of narrative, and go forward to the Month of May, 1887.

I think the reader will agree with me that the subject-matter of this third Volume possesses absorbing interest, quite equal to that in its two preceding Volumes, if not greater. Accounts are given among other things of my meetings with several of the ‘Masters’ in the course of my travels, and of the results of the same, of our removal of the Society’s Headquarters from Bombay to Madras, of H.P.B.’s last departure from her beloved Indian home into exile of an European residence. The troublous time of the Coulomb conspiracy are dealt with in this Volume and the true story of the S.P.R.

From Chapter XXVII – ‘The Opening Ceremony’ (p. 403):

” We are together, Ladies and Gentlemen, upon an occasion that is likely to possess an historical interest in the world of modern culture. The foundation of a Library of such a character as this is among the rarest of events, indeed, it be not unique in modern times. We need not enumerate the great libraries of Western cities, with their millions of Volumes, for they are, rather, huge storehouses of books; not the collections of Oriental literature at the India Office, and in the Royal and National Museums of Europe; nor even the famed Saraswati Mahal, of Tanjore: all these have a character different from our Adyar Library, and do not compete with it. Ours has a definite purpose behind it, a specific line of utility marked out for it from the beginning. It is to be an adjunct to the work of the Theosophical Society; a means of helping to effect the object for which the Society was founded, and which is clearly stated in its constitution. Of the three declared aims of our Society, the first is to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, or color. The second is to promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions and sciences. “

The Buddhist Catechism is an invaluable textbook for those wishing to familiarize themselves with the basic principles of Buddhism. Since it first edition in 1881 it has been published in more than twenty languages, mainly by Buddhists for Buddhists, and was widely used in the Buddhist educational movement which used in the Buddhist educational movement, which Colonel Henry Steel Olcott established in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

The book is constructed in an easy to follow question-answer form, together with an appendix, which outlines the fourteen fundamental Buddhistic tenets. These fourteen items were accepted as fundamental in both the Southern and Northern sections of Buddhism, by authoritative committees to whom they were submitted by the author personally.

From its Preface:

” The unpretending aim in view is to give to succinct and yet comprehensive a digest of Buddhistic history, ethics and philosophy as to enable beginners to understand and appreciate the noble ideal taught by the Buddha, and thus make it easier for them to follow out the Dharma in its details. “

This enlarged edition of Reminiscences of Colonel H.S. Olcott retains the original compilation of articles about this outstanding man and his work, with new sections containing additional information, and quotations taken from his deeply insightful talks and writings for the reader to meditate upon. It is offered as a tribute to a great soul who passed away a hundred years ago on 17 February 1907, and who made an impact in the diverse fields of agricultural science, law, religion, social welfare, education, healing and research. His memory is cherished both on account of his stupendous work and the goodness of his heart.

” This book relates in detail how Buddhists and Theosophists laboured in friendship to raise Buddhist ideals and teachings to a rightful place of dignity at a time when they were looked down upon under colonial rule “.

Included is interesting information about the great work performed by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832 – 1907) to support the Buddhist cause.